Court Releases Part Of Grand Jury Indictment In JonBenet Ramsey Murder

BOULDER, Colo (CBS4) Boulder County Court released 4 pages of a 14 page indictment against John and Patsy Ramsey in the death of their daughter JonBenet. The indictment says each of the parents was accused of putting their daughter in a dangerous situation, and also both parents were accused of helping to cover up the crime.

LINK: Grand Jury Indictment of John & Patsy Ramsey

The indictment was the result of a grand jury convened in 1999 to investigate the murder of JonBenet. The 6-year-old was found dead in the basement of her Boulder home on December 26, 1996. The little girl had been found bludgeoned and strangled to death.

The grand jury, convened three years after the murder, looked at the evidence against John and Patsy Ramsey. Grand jury proceedings are usually kept secret, but the statute of limitations on the indictment's charges have long since lapsed. The release of the documents comes in response to a lawsuit brought by a Boulder Daily Camera reporter and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The judge agreed to release four pages of the 14 page indictment. Legal analysts agree this is unprecedented in Colorado as grand jury finding have never been released to the public.

When the grand jury reached its findings in October of 1999, then District Attorney Alex Hunter decided not to pursue the charges, saying at the time that he didn't have enough evidence to get a conviction.

--Written for cbsdenver.com by Special Projects Producer Libby Smith